Bottom-contact fishing banned near rare Central Coast coral reef

Federal authorities have closed Canada’s only known live coral reef in the Pacific Ocean to all commercial and recreational bottom-contact fishing. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says the indefinite closure came into effect on Feb. 14 for the Lophelia Reef, located in the Finlayson Channel of British Columbia’s Central Coast, about 500 kilometres northwest of Vancouver and 200 kilometres directly east of … Read more

Spider webs catch more than prey. They’re also jam-packed with animal DNA

As It Happens6:05Spider webs catch more than prey. They’re also jam-packed with animal DNA Josh Newton probably isn’t very popular with spiders. After all, the Australian scientist has a tendency to go around undoing their hard work.  “I liken it to when Princess Fiona in Shrek makes some cotton candy for Shrek from spider webs, where … Read more

Researchers used Hurricane Larry to prove ocean microplastics can be swept inland as air pollution

As Hurricane Larry lashed Newfoundland in 2021, university students from Halifax headed to a rural area in its track to find out whether the ocean might whip microplastics up into the atmosphere then transport them by air to otherwise pristine communities. The results, you could say, blew their socks off. “It was such, like, an astonishing result that we … Read more